Yes you are right, Aperture's RAW conversion is its biggest issue. It is however not the kind of thing you can paint with a broad brush. It's camera specific. Some people are enjoying the RAW decodes they get out of Aperture and some, like you, are rightly unhappy. Apple's RAW decodes are different, not better or worse than ACR's in most cases. And people don't like change. I shoot with the 1DMKIIN and I get decodes that are more detailed and have richer color rendition with Aperture but they are also a tad noiser. For me, I don't see this as better or worse, just different. I have seen some bad conversions. People are also unhappy that more cameras aren't supported in Aperture and that's why Apple is working so hard to not only improve the decodes, but to add more supported cameras to the list. They are listening to the feedback on this issue and I suspect that by March, when the crossgrade is released, they'll have most of the decode problems sorted out. BY the way, RAW decodes from early versions of Adobe Camera Raw were very subpar. Change can be good.
